New lateral flow test for liver fluke launched


Things to do at housing

Steps you should be taking now to protect your herd

Beef

  • Check if youngstock needs worming for gut worms at housing using faecal egg counts (FECs). If infection risk is high, use a product that contains a macrocyclic lactone (ML) to kill off inhibited Ostertagia worms to reduce the risk of Type ll ostertagiosis later in the winter. Adult cattle should not require any treatment for gut worms.
  • There is no natural immunity to liver fluke, so all ages of stock must be assessed for treatment where there is a history, or risk of infection. Check fluke forecasts and abattoir returns to monitor presence of fluke
  • Blood test a group of first season grazing calves (as sentinels) two weeks after housing to check whether they have been in contact with liver fluke in the summer

Dairy

  • Check if youngstock needs worming for gut worms at housing using faecal egg counts (FECs). If infection risk is high, use a product that contains macrocyclic lactone (ML) to kill off inhibited Ostertagia worms to reduce the risk of Type ll ostertagiosis later in the winter. Adult cattle should not require any treatment for gut worms
  • Take a bulk milk sample to test if the milking herd has been exposed to liver fluke.
  • There is no natural immunity to liver fluke, so all ages of stock must be assessed for treatment where there is a history, or risk of infection. Check fluke forecasts and use abattoir returns to monitor presence of fluke

Resources

Vet, academic or researcher?

Take a look in Resources for more detailed information on all topics.

14th November 2024

A new, pen-side test will help farmers make decisions whether to treat for liver fluke or not.

The temptation for many farmers is to react to warnings of high liver fluke risk by routinely treating with flukicides. However, without risk assessment and appropriate testing, they cannot know when, or even if, they need to treat their livestock.

A new lateral flow test (think covid testing) for liver fluke has been launched to use on-farm. Developed over ten years by the University of Liverpool, it has been made commercially available by Norbrook.

There are already some tests for liver fluke based on either using faecal or blood samples. But all these are lab-based, which means they need to be sent off for testing, which adds time for a diagnosis.

The lateral flow test looks for host antibodies against infection in a pinprick of blood and can detect infection earlier than faecal testing. A vet visit is not required to collect the blood, so the test can be done on farm with the results available in minutes.

Test kits

There are different packs for cattle and sheep and for each test, ten animals in a group must be tested to ensure a valid result.

The kits contain a lancet to collect a drop of blood from the ear of sheep or the edge of the nose at the hairline of cattle. The drops of blood are scooped up and put into a sample pot and mixed. This sample must be tested within 30 minutes.

One drop of the sample is put onto a lateral flow test device in a small well and three drops of a chaser bottle into a larger well. The result will form in ten minutes.

Lines will develop, just like in a covid test. The C line is a control line and indicates whether the test has worked. The T line can be read against a reference card to see if there are any positive animals or not.

Interpretation

Correct interpretation of the results, be they negative, inconclusive or positive, is critical and not always straight forward.

The test kits are available only through vets and farmers are urged to involve them in any treatment decisions. Test kit numbers are limited to 8,000 this winter with nationwide availability scheduled for early summer 2025.

More information is available in a SCOPS/COWS hosted webinar which took place on 7 November 2024 here: https://bit.ly/3AwpdgZ